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Every August, the city of Longview, Washington has its annual Squirrel Fest — how cool is that? This year, I made it to Squirrel Fest for the first time. I even took the tour to see all the squirrel bridges… but more on that in a moment.

On my way in, I came across Longview’s giant squirrel statue.
Right next to it is a steam-powered train (which doesn’t actually go anywhere), and that’s where the steam is coming from in this photo.

Looking at the inscription at the base of the statue, I saw that it was in memory of Amos J. Peters, the person who donated Longview’s first squirrel bridge in 1963.

Then I came to the trailer welcoming everyone to the festivities.

Of course Squirrel Fest isn’t the Olympics or anything, but security was on duty.

In the main area, there were all sorts of cool things going on, including a parade, lots of merchants’ and sponsors’ booths, a big area for kids, and a stage. There was a gigantic squirrel named Sandy McNutt roaming the grounds, cheerfully mingling with people thoughout. As you can see here, he (or she — squirrels are not sexually dimorphic) was happy to dance with people too.

One of the booths featured this gigantic knitted squirrel, which must’ve taken quite a while to make! You can gauge the size of it by the stapler and the pen that are also on the table.

And of course, there was plenty of pro-squirrel sentiment to go ’round.

One of the big attractions for me was the trolley tour to see all of Longview’s squirrel bridges. For each of them, I’ll give both a close-up and a wide angle photo showing how the bridge fits into the surroundings.

The original squirrel bridge (believed to be world’s first squirrel bridge) is the Nutty Narrows Bridge, built in 1963. According to the official Squirrel Fest pamphlet, Peters built the bridge “after seeing squirrels attempting to cross Olympia Way from the Library grounds to the Old West Side Neighborhood”. What an awesome idea!

The Bruce Kemp Bridge was built in memory of him in 2011. It is believed to be the first covered squirrel bridge anywhere. It has a 24/7 webcam attached to it, which can easily be found by searching online.

The John R. Dick Bridge was designed and built by him and installed in 2012, shortly after his death.

The OBEC Bridge was constructed and donated by that company and installed in 2013.

The Safety Awareness Bridge was designed and constructed by the Bits and Bots Robotics Club from R.A. Long and Mark Morris High Schools. As the official Squirrel Fest pamphlet states, it was “inspired by the memory of Linda LaCoursiere, who was struck by a car.”

The R.D. Olson Bridge was designed by R.D. Olson Manufacturing, Inc. and installed in 2015. It is a replica of the Lewis & Clark Bridge, which spans the Columbia River from Longview, Washington to Rainier, Oregon.

The newest squirrel bridge in Longview was unveiled at this year’s Squirrel Fest. It was created by H&N Sheetmetal and S&R Sheet Metal, and it is scheduled to be put up in the trees in Spring 2017. It is modeled after the Fremont Bridge, which spans the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon.

It was quite a hot day out for Squirrel Fest, so comically enough the squirrels had the good sense mostly just to stay cool in their trees. For the most part, they steered clear of the event in honor of them. However, in some wandering that I did after I left the main area, I did manage to spot a lone squirrel scurrying around in a park.
That squirrel didn’t stay long in the grass though. In just a few moments the squirrel had scampered up a nearby tree and who knows where from there — maybe off to a squirrel bridge!

Among other places, it made its way to a Photoshop Battle on Reddit after it was posted to Imgur, where it had over a million views after its first week.

I had fun taking this photo. I sat on the ground and waited for squirrels to come by. When a squirrel would come near, I would hold my camera almost on the ground in one hand and have a peanut ready in the other hand. I tilted the camera’s viewscreen upward so I could see it at least somewhat, and I pre-focused the camera to a fairly short distance (manual focus rather than autofocus). When the squirrel was at about the right distance, I would toss the peanut its way and take a quick burst of photos. I missed lots and lots of shots that I tried for: many were way out of focus, lots didn’t even have the squirrel in them because squirrels do move, and so on. But I’m happy with how this one turned out!

Here are some things that I have noticed in trying to improve my squirrel photography. Many of them apply to photography in general. If you are an advanced or professional photographer, you may not find much new here, but if you are newer to nature photography, some of these tips might be helpful.

The fundamental rule of animal photography: focus the camera on the animal’s eyes. This can be difficult with squirrels, being the squirrely creatures that they are, but it is essential that the eyes be in focus. (I have lots of substandard images in which I unintentionally focused on the middle of the body or the tail, usually because the squirrel moved too quickly for me.) Only on rare occasions and for specific artistic purposes should the eyes be out of focus.

You are making an entire photograph, not just an image of a squirrel that is cut out or surrounded by white, so pay attention to everything that will be in the photo. Rather than “taking a picture of a squirrel” you are “making a picture of a squirrel as part of a scene that has lots of interesting and important things,” and the parts besides the squirrel (including how the squirrel fits into and relates to them) can make or break the photo. I personally prefer not to think of photos as having “subjects” surrounded by a “background” but rather as entire entities themselves.

Pay attention to the light. Being outdoors, you don’t control the lighting, but you may be able to move around to catch the light from a different angle, or even just wait a few minutes for the light to change. Also, if this is a place that squirrels regularly hang out, then you can instead try to photograph them at times when the light is good for the type of shot that you want to do. But even within a single photo session you can try to position yourself so that the light will fall on the squirrels in your photos in a pleasing way.

Watch the tails! While an effective photo might not show all of the squirrel’s tail, most of the time the photo looks better if the tail is included. I can’t tell you how many squirrel photos I have in which the squirrel’s tail has moved partway out of the photo. For a front or back view of a sitting squirrel, portrait orientation for the camera is often useful to help include the tail. For a side view of a sitting or running squirrel, landscape orientation is usually better. For a front or back view of a running squirrel, an approximately square image may do (if the tail is not sticking too far in any particular direction), in which case either orientation would work. In general, the tail position is important for determining the orientation of the camera. If in doubt, or if the squirrel is scampering about a lot, then you may need to zoom out a bit (or step further back) and then crop later. That’s not optimal, but it’s certainly better than unintentionally leaving part of the tail out of the photo!

Try to anticipate the squirrels’ actions. How can you possibly do that? Observe squirrels, a lot. You will begin to notice aspects and patterns of how they move. Do they take a regular path to their tree, or to stash nuts? What does it mean when they flick their tails that way? What (if anything) do they do when they are just about to jump? And so on. Squirrels repeat themselves a lot. Notice how they do and take advantage of it to anticipate opportunities for photos.

Listen! When you are waiting quietly for squirrels to photograph, you can often hear a squirrel approach (especially from within a tree) well before you see it. You also may hear squirrels communicating with each other too. They have some very distinctive calls!

If you are photographing squirrels that are on the ground, try crouching or lying still on the ground, in order to get as close to their eye level as possible. This has several advantages. One is that it makes the photo seem more intimate and gives people a view of squirrels that they don’t see as often. Another advantage is that it is less intimidating to the squirrels. They have very good motion detection in their peripheral vision (particularly their upwards peripheral vision), and they are much more likely to run away if you are towering above them and/or moving.

Move slowly. Squirrels are very good at detecting rapid motion, and it usually (and understandably!) scares them away.

Small and quiet cameras are less intimidating to squirrels, and they allow you to shoot one-handed more easily (with a nut in the other hand ready to throw to them). A tilting screen on a camera can allow you to take pictures low to the ground without lying down. Just sit on the ground, hold the camera in one or two hands near the ground with your finger on the shutter release button ready whenever a squirrel approaches.

For close-up pictures of squirrels, experiment with manual focus if your camera allows it. You can pre-focus the camera to a short distance, and then when the squirrel is at that distance take the photo (with no further focusing to slow the process down). If you practice this, you get better and better at judging a good distance to focus and what that distance looks like.

If you have the luxury of returning to the same area with the same squirrels multiple times, it helps to allow them to get used to the sound that the camera makes. So click a few times when they are near, not worrying about the actual photo, and soon they will probably become less frightened of the sound.

To bring squirrels to an area, try making raw unsalted nuts available to them. Since squirrels are wild animals, I personally prefer not to feed them by hand (although I know that many people do). However, I put food out in the same place (in a squirrel feeder) each morning, and that tends to bring several squirrels to the same place again and again. They remember locations with food very well. If possible, place a pile of food for them (just once or daily) in a spot that is convenient for your photography.

Be a strong critic of your own work. Even many professional photographers will take not just dozens but hundreds or thousands of photographs for each one that they display for others. Learn from every photo that you take, but try to exhibit only your best work. (Of course, that will change over time, but when you select what to display, try to make sure that it lives up to your own standards at that time.)

If your camera allows you to change settings in manual mode, use that to your advantage. Decide what type of shots will work well in the light that you have, and set your camera accordingly. One little trick when photographing squirrels is to set the ISO as high as you can tolerate (the highest level where noise does not detract too much or can be dealt with in post-processing). This will allow you a faster shutter speed, which will make your images sharper, particularly if you are hand-holding your camera (which I usually am when photographing squirrels, since they move around so much) or if the squirrels are moving (which is quite often!). One exception to this is if there is plenty of light and your shutter speed is already faster than, say, about 1/1000 of a second. In that case, you might want to use a low ISO to keep noise down.

If your camera allows you to shoot a burst of images with one press of a button, use that mode! Squirrels are constantly moving around and doing different things, and a fraction of a second can lead to a very different picture.

Be patient, and I mean this in several ways. Be patient in any single outing when you are photographing squirrels; if you miss one shot (or a hundred), don’t worry — there will be more! Also be patient in the sense that you may need to try to photograph squirrels on many different occasions. Sometimes the light isn’t working, sometimes the squirrels won’t be cooperating, and so on. And in an even larger sense, be patient with yourself. If you try photographing squirrels one day but don’t get any photos that you’re pleased with, try to figure out how you can improve your photos next time — you have just had a good practice session. And with practice, your photos WILL improve!

Most of all, respect and appreciate the squirrels for the wonderful creatures that they are, and have fun sharing your enthusiasm for them with others.

Welcome to my squirreling journal (my sqournal perhaps?)! In this journal, I’ll post my photos of the eastern gray squirrels that live in and around my yard, along with my thoughts and observations about the photos and about squirrels. I hope that in the process I will learn more about both squirrels and photography, and maybe you will too.

I have filled the gallery on this website with some of my favorite squirrel photos that I have taken so far. I won’t post every photo from my blog to the gallery, but I will continue to select my favorites from the blog to include in the gallery.

So if you like looking at and/or taking pictures of squirrels, you’ve come to the right place — happy browsing!